While students might not understand what 'color theory' entails, most will comprehend the terms 'warm' and 'cool' in reference to color. Kathy Barbro, California art teacher and creator of the blog Art Projects for Kids, provides a wonderful lesson that teaches children how to make the distinction and practice sorting based on these characteristics. Provide your students with magazines and kid's scissors, instructing them to cut swatches of warm colors (red, orange, yellow) and cool colors (green, blue, purple). Barbro suggests teaching students a few tricks for identifying these different color groups. For warm colors, invite your students to think of the sun. For cool colors, recommend that your students think of the ocean.
Prepare 'window' displays, pulling from Barbro's post for directions, and instruct your students to use their clippings to create a collage for each grouping. Using the window approach helps to create a strong border around each mini-collage and allows students to see how each group of colors has a cohesive look.
